The views and opinions expressed by Paul Larkin on Cic Saor/Free Kick are purely personal
views and do not represent the policy, or editorial position, of any media outlet for
whom Paul Larkin has either worked in the past, or may work for in the future.

I do not play my guitar for applause.I sing of the difference between what is true and false,otherwise, I do not sing.Violeta Parra (Chile)

Pól Ó Lorcáin
Paul Larkin

Chroniclers are privileged to enter where they
list, to come and go through keyholes, to ride
upon the wind, to overcome in their soarings up
and down, all obstacles of distance, time and
place.
Charles Dickens - Barnaby Rudge,
Chapter The Ninth

The DUP and Theresa May - England's truly liberal values need to be asserted, before it’s too late

There is a very healthy strain of true radicalism and popular democracy in England – stretching from the 1600s Levellers at one end to the Poll Tax revolt against Thatcher at the other. Do the English seriously propose to irrevocably besmirch their democracy with the taint of DUP bigotry and intolerance and that party’s questionable record on loyalist paramilitarism?

The Pat Finucane Centre finally does the right thing

In relation to my long running complaint against Pat Finucane Centre board member Stuart Ross’s gratuitous and groundless attack on me – see http://www.fadooda.com/index.php?itemid=761
the new chairman of the PFC, Tony Brown, wrote to me on behalf of the PFC Tuesday of this week to acknowledge my ‘vital role’ over many years in exposing collusion and praising my television programmes on collusion. Tony also expresses his 'regret' at what took place. Both Tony and the PFC people involved in drawing up this statement are to be applauded, regardless of our past differences.

I give the two key quotes below, and make no apology for highlighting these quotes from a longer letter from the PFC, as these quotes represent the core of what I have requested from the PFC for three years. The issue of free speech has been raised several times in this debate and in exactly the same vein I, of course, decide what is important to me. Nobody else.

Why is Pat Finucane Centre board member Stuart Ross still attacking my work on collusion?

In 2013, in a number of internet discussion sites (see below) a member of the board of Pat Finucane Centre , Stuart Ross, described my book on collusion A Very British Jihad as ‘easily dismissed’ and consisting of ‘foolish innuendos’. Mr Ross did this by supportively echoing and quoting the sentiments of Queens University academic Adrian Guelke in his 2004 review of my book in Fortnight magazine. Mr Ross continues to this day to disseminate this surprising and unwarranted slur on my journalism, but at the same time imperiously ignores myself and others who have pointed out how (factually) wrong both he and Adrian Guelke are. Thus I have no choice but to go public, as it were, on this issue

State agent Robin Jackson provided the weapons used in the 1994 Heights Bar atrocity and many other anti Peace Process attacks.

Not even the Police Ombudsman seems to grasp the significance of this paragraph in his report:

4.156
The 1990 intelligence concluded by reporting that Robin Jackson had possession of some of the weapons from Mitchell’s farm, including ten ‘AK’ assault rifles (likely to have been a reference to VZ58 rifles), ammunition and an RPG launcher, and subsequently distributed two of the rifles and the RPG launcher to Person Y, the ‘Brigadier’ of East Belfast UVF.
4.157
This supports intelligence from February 1989 that Lurgan UVF had a large number of weapons from the 1987 loyalist shipment in a deep hide under the control of Robin Jackson.

The end of Cic Saor as we know it - a valedictory note

And the fat man say I don't want to hear your voice
And the thin man say I don't want to hear your voice
And they're cursing me, and they won't let me be
And there's nothing to say, and there's nothing to do
Stop whispering. Start shouting.*

There is nothing in comparison to being embraced by your own people

THE END OF CIC SAOR AS WE KNOW IT

In relative terms, my announcement in June - http://www.fadooda.com/index.php?itemid=722 that I was stepping back from front-line political blogging on this Cic Saor site provoked a surprisingly strong reaction; with people asking how I could "walk away" just at the point when my arguments about the British state's collusion with pro-unionist death squads have gone mainstream. I even got mails from the USA asking me to reconsider. But I'm pressing ahead with my intention, and from this blog onwards Cic Saor will be renamed, at some point, and no longer contain references to spooks (state intelligence spies), state collusion with death squads or psyops propaganda and the apparent wholesale swallowing of same by sections of a gullible media. I will return to some of these themes and the characters they have thrown up, like the reprobates referred to below, but this will be as an element of my fiction writing. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Refusing to say nothing - Eddie Holt

In the proud and fond memory of my friend and journalistic comrade Eddie Holt who passed away on June 23rd, I reproduce his review in the Irish Times of my book A Very British Jihad , which was published in his weekly column in 2004. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

The Irish Times refuses to publish my letter in defence of its literary correspondent Eileen Battersby.

In the aftermath of Eileen Battersby's negative review of Paul Murray's new novel and the attacks upon her, I wrote in protest to the Irish Times. Ireland's alleged 'paper of record' has refused to my publish letter; so I am now publishing it below.

The spook term ‘Stakeknife’ was not put into circulation until the early 2000s - where did it come from?

Adams and McGuinness - the clear targets of spook 'whistleblowers'

I can understand why BBC Northern Ireland’s investigative strand Spotlight (a programme for which I worked as a producer/director for years) declined to identify the “someone posing as a journalist” who secretly taped General Sir John Wilsey. This was featured this week in an investigation into the grim murder of an alleged IRA informer Caroline Moreland in 1994. The programme makes a questionable claim that the seemingly ubiquitous British agent Fred Scappaticci (the alleged 'Stakeknife') was involved in this killing. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

That Adams and Charles handshake

Other factors aside, Irish journalism’s decades-long anti-Sinn Féin bias is chopped at the knees by the very establishment over whom they have fawned.

Taking my journalist’s hat off for a moment, as a socialist and someone who has an acknowledged record in exposing the British state’s secret and illegal campaign of violence in Ireland, I would personally be opposed to the idea of any Irish socialist shaking the hand of the titular commander of the Parachute Regiment – Prince Charles of England who visits Ireland today. This is particularly the case because of my close connections to Ballymurphy in West Belfast and Derry city – both of which suffered grievously at the hands of a clearly orchestrated infliction of mass murder, perpetrated by that same Parachute Regiment within the space of six months of each other. Here I am, of course, referring to the Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday massacres of innocent civilians in 1971 and early 1972 respectively. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Jane Winter and British Irish Rights Watch settle privately with News International over hacking

Secret agreement raises serious questions for both Irish law enforcement agencies and the Irish media

Times Newspapers - dragged into the News Int. hacking scandal

No doubt the revelation that human rights lawyer Jane Winter and British Irish Rights Watch (BIRW - of which Ms Winter was the former director) have settled out of court with News International over hacking will surprise many Cic Saor followers as much as it has your author.

This secret settlement seems to have been agreed in early February just passed, and whilst the exact details, by definition, will be confidential (normal in out of court settlements) the fact of a settlement it usually reported and our first question has to be why the silence? This question is particularly pertinent given that Jane Winter is a highly respected human rights lawyer and one would have expected a statement from her on this vital media/rights-infringement issue. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Ivor Bell - the Guardian implies he spoke “openly and freely”
on Boston College tapes

Whatever side you take on the Jean McConville affair, there is no doubt that it’s an important issue. In 1972, a woman with a large, young family was abducted by the IRA and shot and secretly buried. It’s important for the McConville family and wider society that the truth about her murder be established if possible. In my view, this can only be done when we have a fully comprehensive Truth Commission. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

My short statement in defence of Solicitor Peter Madden after Mairia Cahill’s offensive and insinuating attack on him today on Twitter

John and Geraldine Finucane with solicitor Peter Madden (r)

I don’t follow Mairia Cahill on twitter. I don’t regularly check to see or hear what she has to say. I hardly need to, given that any statement she makes is given blanket and largely uncritical coverage by a willing Irish media. Make of that fact what you will dear readers. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Why the Dublin 4 elite have no interest in an entirely innocent Galway man Jerome O’Connor - vanished from history

The Southern Establishment mantra - "See no Evil. Hear no Evil. Speak no Evil." Unless it involves the Provos

In all the Sound and Fury over the last few weeks relating to kangaroo courts and paramilitary justice (or the unsurprising lack of it) not one Irish politician, journalist or media outlet has ever mentioned the murder of Jerome O’Connor, shot dead in Galway in August 1974. The value of his life and tragedy of his death has simply been vanished and here's why. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Taoiseach Enda Kenny himself sits in government with people whose former party had an illegal armed wing

Taoiseach Enda Kenny - keen to remind us about Mairia Cahill, not so keen to talk about the Official IRA

It is a matter of clear and obvious record that Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his Fine Gael party sits in a coalition government with the Labour Party. That Labour Party is made up of an old traditional labour group and a new group that originally came from the Workers Party not that long ago (the 1990s). Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

On International Translators Day, the Irish Translators Association defends its sponsorship of Freemasonry

On International Translators Day (the feast of St Jerome September 30th), An Cumann Aistritheoirí agus Teangairí na hÉireann – the Irish Translators and Interpreters Association defends its sponsorship of Freemasonry

In May of this year, I mailed the national translators association of which I'm a member to protest their support and sponsorship of a European Literature Night event in Dublin; not, as readers can imagine because I'm against European Literature Nights, but because this particular event was being held at the Headquarters of the Freemasons in Ireland in Molesworth Street

In praise of Billy O’Shea’s Steampunk novel, set in post-Apocalypse Scandinavia

The Kingdom of Clockwork

Author and translator Billy O'Shea

I am obliged to warn Cic Saor aficionados that the subject of this blog, author and fellow Irishman, and indeed fellow professional translator, Billy O’Shea, is a friend of mine, and also that Billy has paid me that great honour of placing an extract from one of my poems about Copenhagen at the beginning of his novel Kingdom of Clockwork. Some readers may remember this poem – A ‘Christmas homage to Copenhagen’. See here- http://www.fadooda.com/index.php?itemid=489
Having now read Kingdom of Clockwork, I can see why Billy O’Shea would want to include this passage (below) from the poem as it is almost presciently redolent of the atmosphere in parts of his book:

strange that in fog
we feel the mechanics of things
Tycho Brahe’s whirring mental cogs
Copernican spheres and trajectories
softly rending the thick air above me
planetary charts over Denmark and Sweden

State agent Peter Keeley still in the care and protection of the PSNI during life of Smithwick Tribunal

In my previous Cic Saor article (see directly below) on the increasingly questionable Smithwick Tribunal, there was not space to refer to serial dissimulator and hacker Peter Keeley (aka Kevin Fulton) who told the Tribunal that MI5 had taken control of his case and were paying his expenses and accommodation – see page 262 of Smithwick report. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Why the UVF’s “World Cup” massacre at Loughinisland could sink the Smithwick Tribunal.

How could Judge Peter Smithwick ever have accepted MI5 and the PSNI’s Legacy Unit as honest brokers?

Judge Peter Smithwick - Naive to a fault?

Many Cic Saor readers will not be aware that the findings of Smithwick Tribunal are being challenged in a judicial review, which will be heard in Dublin later this year.

In broad terms, Judge Peter Smithwick’s report published at the end of last year found that certain unnamed members of An Garda Síochána had in fact colluded with the IRA in and around the time when two senior RUC officers were killed in 1989. These RUC officers were Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan – the most senior RUC men to lose their lives in the Troubles. However Smithwick could find no direct evidence whatsoever to link any Garda officer with the murder of the two officers. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Fintan O’Toole’s amnesia over Paul Bew in the Irish Times

The forgetful Fintan O'Toole

In Saturday’s Irish Times, that scion of democracy Fintan O’Toole sprang to the defence of Paul Bew who has been heavily criticised for his role in the Boston College fiasco. Anyone who has the temerity to question Bew’s political motives, he wailed, is an opponent, not only of scholarship, but democracy itself. In other words the people who question Bew are the enemies of democracy. They are also, readers will note, "insidious": Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....